I'll open by taking a stab at answering the question posed in the headline: I would be very surprised if the Trump administration deliberately and strategically slow-walked the release evidence against the now-famous 'Maryland Father' illegal immigrant who was recently deported to El Salvador. My best guess is that they're engaging in this political and legal battle on the fly, reacting as developments unfold. But part of me does wonder if they plotted to force Democrats and their media friends to climb out onto a limb on behalf of someone the White House knew would turn out to be a highly unsympathetic figure. The 'news' media has been covering this man's case for days on end, presenting him as an upstanding husband and father who was wrongfully scooped up by the Trump administration and sent to a Salvadoran gulag. Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen has made a big show of traveling to San Salvador on a fact-finding and "solidarity" mission, with many elected Democrats elevating and amplifying this case.
Based on my understanding of the facts, what is true is that a previous judicial order had determined that this individual could not be deported to El Salvador, specifically, because there was a credible threat to his physical safety from rival gangs in his nation of origin. But he did enter the US illegally, did have a removal order against him, and was deemed in two previous immigration proceedings to have been a member of the brutal MS-13 gang. He as not legally present in the United States and does not have any right or special protection to stay here. The Trump administration admitted in legal documents that they had sent him back to El Salvador in error, due to an administrative mistake. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the administration must "facilitate" his return (he would presumably be eligible to be promptly deported elsewhere), but did not order the administration to "effectuate" that return, chiding a lower court on that latter point.
There is now an ongoing debate on whether the administration took any action toward the required facilitation, as the leader of El Salvador said he would not send this man back to America. It does not appear as though Trump put up any fight at all on this front, or even made a specific request. I suspect that if he'd pressed the point, the president of El Salvador -- who has been very close with and helpful to the Trump team -- would have complied. His country has returned people to the US previously, after all. My general view is that because of the error that was made here, as admitted in court filings, the administration was wrong to have deported this particular man to El Salvador, and that they should take serious steps to get him back (even if their very next move is to banish him to some other place). If they show the courts that they won't clean up or rectify mistakes of this sort, more courts may become inclined to throw up more due process barriers on the front end, slowing down the urgent process of removing large numbers of illegal immigrants from our country. The White House should do what they need to do reverse the error, then quickly deport this man to another country or Gitmo.
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That is my sense of things on the legal front. On the political front, however, it looks like leftists in government and newsrooms have walked into a trap. Whether it was intentionally set for them, I don't know. But they've now spent days highlighting this case, bemoaning its "victim's" plight, and framing the deported man as am innocent "Maryland Father" who was ripped away from his loving family. But the more we discover about him, the more some of these leftists ought to worry about picking a deeply flawed poster child for their anti-Trump agitations. Late this week, we've discovered that the man had at least two protective orders filed and granted against him by his wife, for alleged domestic abuse:
Thank you for sharing. She also filed for a protective order against Garcia in 2020: https://t.co/22TOvROGSy
— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) April 16, 2025
More details:
EXCLUSIVE: Jennifer Vasquez, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, testified that her husband beat her multiple times between 2019 and 2021.
— Jon Michael Raasch (@JMRaasch) April 16, 2025
'I have multiple photos/videos of how [violent] he can be and all the bruises he has left me,' she told authorities.https://t.co/pdOdt0i52f
These revelations began with investigative conservative journalist Andy Ngo unearthing court records, but the Department of Homeland Security quickly followed up with more information:
Kilmar Abrego Garcia had a history of violence and was not the upstanding “Maryland Man” the media has portrayed him as.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) April 16, 2025
According to court filings, Garcia’s wife sought a domestic violence restraining order against him, claiming he punched, scratched, and ripped off her shirt,… pic.twitter.com/FpSV0k3i90
1. When Garcia was arrested he was found with rolls of cash and drugs.
— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) April 16, 2025
2. He was arrested with two other members of MS-13.
3. Two judges found that he was a member of MS-13. That finding has not been disturbed.
4. When arrested he was wearing what is effectively MS-13’s uniform. pic.twitter.com/iDY7jP371Y
Our colleague Katie Pavlich added this to the pile, via federal law enforcement:
DOJ releases additional information about “Maryland man” and illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) April 16, 2025
In 2019 the Prince George’s County Police Gang Unit determined Garcia was an MS-13 gang member w/ contacts to other members. He admitted he was in the U.S. illegally after arrest… pic.twitter.com/7aIFn7Pqrm
Perhaps there's a reason why this man was determined to be an MS-13 member at several stages throughout his extensive due process journey. It also looks like one of the most widely cited counterpoints to the MS-13 allegations isn't factual. Read this thread. And beyond all of that, the 'human trafficking' rumors swirling around this figure appear to be rooted in more than just wild claims:
Just received a response to my inquiry to the Tennessee Highway Patrol about the reported 2022 stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Indeed, it happened. From a spokesman: 'The Tennessee Highway Patrol can confirm a 2022 traffic stop of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was stopped for…
— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 18, 2025
The Tennessee Star learned on Wednesday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) who was deported to El Salvador under President Donald Trump amid legal action claiming the removal was by mistake, was suspected of being engaged in human trafficking by a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officer who detained him in December 2022, leading the THP to contact the FBI for guidance. Within two hours, the FBI ultimately requested the THP release Garcia and the passengers in his vehicle. THP complied with the request. The Star learned from sources familiar with the incident that Abrego Garcia was stopped for an unknown reason on December 6, 2022, and that the THP officer responsible for the stop immediately discovered Abrego Garcia was transporting seven passengers, with eight individuals inside the vehicle. During a nearly two-hour traffic stop, the THP officer determined that Abrego Garcia (pictured above) was operating the vehicle without a valid driver’s license and began searching for information about him.
Regardless of the due process and rule of law concerns at play here, politically speaking, this guy is now looking more and more like not just a deportation-eligible illegal immigrant, but a repeat spousal abuser, and very possibly a gang member and suspected human trafficker, too. This is the person Democrats and journalists have decided to hitch their Trump resistance to, in the most high-profile way? On Wednesday, in response to Sen. Van Hollen's field trip to Central America, the White House invited Rachel Morin's mother to address the press corps at the daily briefing. If you haven't already, please watch these excruciating, disturbing, heartbreaking remarks:
Absolutely blistering comments about Chris Van Hollen, her Senator, at the end of this gut-wrenching clip. https://t.co/h41J8k7WEw
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 16, 2025
Critics, after mumbling a few words about the Morin ordeal being terrible, angrily insist this appearance was cynical misdirection and emotional exploitation by the White House. One terrible story has nothing to do with the other, they've complained. It's sad what happened, but it's irrelevant to this other matter. But here is a perfect summary of why the Morin story is highly relevant to the dynamics of the El Salvador deportation controversy:
People keep dismissing this as whataboutism, but it isn't. The Biden admin specifically chose policies that allowed millions of unvetted migrants to enter the country. At this point, that's beyond dispute. The rush on the border started when Biden became President, it came down only when the Biden admin started taking action in an election year, and it stopped once he was out of office. The result of those policies was a ton of American victims harmed by people with no legal right to be here. Those victims were overwhelmingly ignored by Democrats and their allies in the media. Now watching Democrats suddenly get concerned about immigration issues again only in relation to victims that don't have a legal right to be here given that record over 4 years is offensive to a lot of people, especially the families of those victims. That doesn't mean there aren't legitimate arguments about due process, but the current outrage over process for deportations given the silence for 4 years regarding the harm of non-enforcement speaks volumes about priorities.
Absolutely right. The perverse priorities are, indeed, revealing, and do influence how people feel about this man's passionate advocates throughout politics and media:
🚨 STUDY: The leftist media say nothing about an illegal being found guilty of the horrific rape and murder of Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother of five.
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) April 16, 2025
Read more: https://t.co/nReHKrk9SN pic.twitter.com/ru4qYijKWN
I'll leave you with this:
We are not the same. pic.twitter.com/yTUoSXmCBa
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 18, 2025
Again, legal questions aside, this is the political juxtaposition that Democrats have chosen for themselves -- and they seem to be doubling down on their choice, even as we learn more about the illegal immigrant at the center of this firestorm:
this semi-literate tweet is certainly a political choice https://t.co/IecT2V1GcT
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 18, 2025
The DNC Chairman thanks a U.S. Senator for meeting with an MS-13 gang member.
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) April 18, 2025
Incredible. pic.twitter.com/poXBwarfmh
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